Akin Gump litigation partner Neal Marder and associate Zak Franklin have written the article “9th Circ. Dole Decision May Spark More ‘All Natural’ Claims” for Law360, looking at a decision last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit providing guidance on deceptive advertising claims concerning food products labeled “all natural.”

Marder and Franklin write that the unpublished ruling, which said that “a trier of fact could find that Dole’s “all natural fruit” labels are misleading to a reasonable consumer because the products contain synthetic citric and ascorbic acid,” will likely lead to additional “all natural” class action lawsuits. They observe that the opinion also “underscores the evidentiary burden on class action plaintiffs to establish that damages can be measured on a classwide basis.”

The authors conclude by noting that the case will lead to “significant challenges both for the plaintiffs’ bar and for the defense bar.”